Google has officially launched a dedicated Gemini Mac app starting today. Once installed, users can simply hit Option + Space, and a mini chat overlay will open up from anywhere in macOS, and Option + Shift + Space to open the full desktop experience.
Perhaps one of the most compelling tricks is its ability to share your screen directly with the AI. This allows Gemini to "see" anything on your screen, whether it"s a document, design, or webpage that you"re working on, bypassing the need to manually copy and paste text or images.
Gemini isn"t the first to offer a native Mac app. OpenAI has aggressively courted Mac users since its inception. The ChatGPT maker recently added support to natively read code from popular IDEs like VS Code and JetBrains, and even launched a dedicated Codex AI coding app for the Mac. Microsoft dominates the Windows side of things via its deep Copilot integrations, and Google couldn"t simply afford to let OpenAI monopolise on the Mac.
It is to be noted that while Windows does support native AI features, so much so that users are actually fed up with it, and Microsoft is actually even removing (read: rebranding) some of it, Apple is still absent from the AI equation on its own operating system.
While Apple Intelligence debuted at WWDC 2024, the highly anticipated "Personal Intelligence" and deep on-screen awareness features were notoriously delayed. Ultimately, Apple pivoted and announced that it would collaborate with Google for the next-gen Siri. Apple is reportedly paying Google more than $1 billion as part of this deal.
However, with a standalone app for Gemini, Google wants to make sure that it maintains a direct relationship with its most demanding users on Mac. The company knows that its AI will eventually become filtered with an Apple-designed UI and risks losing its own brand visibility.